“A new moment for mankind.” That was how Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described his country’s biofuel boom in March 2007. Back then, Brazil was the poster child of ethanol fuel, its output second only to that of the United States. Fermenting the sugars in the country’s abundant sugar cane produced a motor fuel that lowered carbon dioxide emissions, and many saw Brazil as a model for how the world could shed its addiction to oil, creating jobs along the way.

In a major leap in the field of power generation, India will soon start a project to generate electricity through geothermal energy.

Oil marketing companies have to mix 5% ethanol with petrol;CCEA approves market-based pricing of the biofuel

A modern garbage treatment plant will be set up for producing ethanol and jet fuel in the district like the developed countries.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has received increasing attention in recent years, with claims for its potential as a “carbon negative” technology, to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

New research provides the latest numbers behind ethanol’s toll on global food prices—$11.6 billion in higher prices for corn importing countries over a period of six years. More than half, $6.6 billion, of that was borne by developing nations, where a high percentage of household income is spent on food.

Permitting ethanol production will save up huge chunk of foreign exchange spent on petroleum exports, said S. Nallasamy, pro-toddy activist and field organiser of People’s Movement of India.

He was speaking to reporters here after the ethanol campaign journey led by him reached Tiruvannamalai on Saturday. “India relies on imports for 80 per cent of its petroleum needs. By extensively replacing petroleum with ethanol, that could be produced from sugarcane and corn etc., not only the foreign exchange, we can also save our farmers and the whole economy. Some may argue that by permitting ethanol production, we may end up permitting a steep hike in the price of sugar.

Land meant for food crops being used to grow biofuel crops; may push up food prices by 36 per cent by 2020. The European Union’s biofuel production targets are depriving people of food, land and water across the world. Increasing biofuel production is one of the measures taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions and save the environment. But it is resulting in food price inflation and serious cases of land grabs in poor countries, says the recent report, The Hunger Grains, by Oxfam, an international non-profit.

The People's Movement of India will launch a nation-wide awareness campaign and take out a yatra from Coimbatore to New Delhi to urge the Central Government to promote the use of ethanol as an alternative automotive fuel.

The campaign will be launched on September 21 and the yatra will commence at 10 a.m. on the same day from the Red Cross Society premises in Coimbatore, Field organiser of the movement C. Nallasamy told newspersons here on Monday.

New Delhi Generation-based incentives and depreciation allowance to encourage production of power from new and renewable sources will be on top agenda for the 12th Plan.

‘‘The provision for inclusion of these incentives has been discussed with the Planning Commission and I have requested the planners to offer these for a larger period of eight years rather than five that was given during 11th Plan,” said new and renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah while addressing the India Carbon Market Conclave on Thursday.

Pages